Editorial—A Promethean Editorial

It might be overselling it a bit, but I’m going to be stealing a little bit of the fire from my betters this week, hence the article title.

The fire I’m going to steal is from the upcoming Council Connection.  You may have heard from some shady sources that AUSU Council was planning on raising their fees.  The first reading of the fee increase motion came forward at the last AUSU Council meeting, and it would have needed five votes of the seven people present to pass.

It didn’t receive them. It wasn’t even close.

When the vote was called, only two councillors voted in favor of the fee increase, and five voted against.  Councillors on AUSU were reluctant to vote in such a large increase right now though there was general agreement that a fee increase would very likely be needed and some point in the not-too-distant future.  But there were concerns that AUSU does not yet have enough information about other sources of an expected increase in revenue, or a defined plan for the excess money the fee would bring in.

Even more surprising, two student observers were present at the AUSU Council meeting (no, that’s not the surprising bit.  I mean, okay, it is, but that’s not what I meant) and, in the Q&A period following the meeting, both voiced their support for the fee increase.  Welcome to AU folks, where students are good with paying higher student association fees, but the student council that gets those fees votes against it.  As if we needed any more proof that AU is unique.

More information about this (including who voted which way), and everything else that went on the meeting, will be able to be found in our Council Connection report, hopefully available next week.

Meanwhile, this week, our feature article is a student interview, where we speak with an AU student in the Criminal Justice program who has an eye set toward law school—if she ever stops being a student.

We also have a continuation of one of the articles that made Best of the Voice several years ago.  Barb Godin revisits her special sister with a final chapter to the story, a chapter that’s no different in how it pulls on  your emotions.

This week also has a continuation of the theme of a new year bringing change in various aspects, from Barbara Lehtiniemi’s look at a new way of helping people, to Hazel Anaka’s new view of choosing your word of the year, through Deanna Roney’s preparation for a new experience in pursuing her graduate degree.

And of course, we round that off with a selection of columns and other interesting articles, events, news, reviews, advice, and, just to keep things light, a look at the reality of how the truth really is what you make.  Even though that reality is, like all truth, what you make it.  You’ll understand once you’ve read the latest installment of The Fly on the Wall.  Enjoy the read!